Author: Tatjana Anderer

Frank­furt am Main — Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG) has successfully comple­ted the capi­tal raising for DBAG ECF IV with invest­ment commit­ments of around 250 million euros — for which the DBAG team was able to convince new and exis­ting inves­tors in recent months. The volume raised by DBAG ECF IV has more than doubled compared to its prede­ces­sor fund, DBAG ECF III (DBAG ECF III: EUR 106 million fund volume). DBAG ECF IV increa­ses the assets mana­ged or advi­sed by DBAG to 2.7 billion euros. DBAG and members of the DBAG Invest­ment Advi­sory Team are invol­ved with a signi­fi­cant co-invest­ment. As the majo­rity share­hol­der, DBAG ECF IV invests in family-run medium-sized compa­nies with an initial invest­ment volume of between 10 and 40 million euros. Through add-on acqui­si­ti­ons, for exam­ple, capi­tal increa­ses of up to 60 million euros can be imple­men­ted. The fund focu­ses on manage­ment buy-outs of family-run compa­nies in the context of succes­sion situa­tions and/or capi­tal increa­ses. Carve-outs of one or more busi­ness units from larger groups are also possi­ble. In addi­tion, DBAG ECF IV gene­rally aims to acquire a majo­rity stake over a period of around five years. The fund’s invest­ment period runs until the end of 2028 and it is plan­ned to make up to five further invest­ments in addi­tion to the five exis­ting invest­ments. One of the active inves­tors in the German-spea­king Mittelstand

The initial tran­sac­tions of DBAG ECF IV were made between July 2023 and Octo­ber 2024 and contri­bute to two dedi­ca­ted mega­trends in the German-spea­king region. AOE, ProMik and UNITY AG are driving digi­ta­liza­tion and the asso­cia­ted increase in produc­ti­vity. While Avrio and TBD Tech­ni­sche Bau Dienst­leis­tun­gen are bene­fiting from the energy tran­si­tion in Germany. DBAG has expan­ded its sector focus in recent years to serve these indus­tries, which are charac­te­ri­zed by struc­tu­ral growth. Since then, the team has concen­tra­ted on compa­nies in the areas of IT services and soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture as well as indus­trial services and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies, i.e. compa­nies that enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion. “Despite the chal­len­ging market situa­tion, we have mana­ged to convince exis­ting and new inves­tors. This is proba­bly even rela­ted to the macroe­co­no­mic situa­tion. After all, we have often proven in the past that our team can iden­tify and successfully deve­lop attrac­tive medium-sized compa­nies even in a chal­len­ging macroe­co­no­mic envi­ron­ment,” says Tom Alzin, Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG. DBAG ECF IV bene­fits greatly from being inte­gra­ted into the DBAG ecosys­tem. The company’s invest­ment advi­sory team draws on a very broad range of expe­ri­ence with regard to German SMEs and family-run compa­nies in parti­cu­lar. The funds advi­sed by DBAG offer these compa­nies not only succes­sion solu­ti­ons, of which around 11,000 are to be imple­men­ted in Germany alone by 2026, but also indi­vi­dual equity solutions. 

DBAG ECF IV will help DBAG to further conso­li­date its posi­tion as an inves­tor in well-posi­tio­ned medium-sized compa­nies with attrac­tive deve­lo­p­ment potential.

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity compa­nies. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­tio­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The sector focus is on produ­cers of indus­trial goods, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­ta­liza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the IT services and soft­ware, health­care, envi­ron­ment, energy and infra­struc­ture sectors. Since 2020, DBAG has also been repre­sen­ted in Italy with its own office in Milan. The assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to around 2.7 billion euros. As part of the stra­te­gic part­ner­ship with ELF Capi­tal, DBAG is adding private debt capi­tal to its range of flexi­ble finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs. 

Copen­ha­gen — Verdane, a Euro­pean private equity firm specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal, has announ­ced the successful final closing of the Verdane Idun II fund (“Idun II” or “the Fund”) at a hard cap of EUR 700 million. This is more than double the size of its prede­ces­sor fund with a volume of EUR 300 million. The Fund will invest in compa­nies focu­sed on the struc­tu­ral growth trend of decar­bo­niza­tion. The invest­ment focus of Idun II is on inves­t­ing in ambi­tious growth compa­nies that contri­bute to more sustainable social deve­lo­p­ment. Idun II is a fund clas­si­fied under Article 9 of the EU Finan­cial Infor­ma­tion Regu­la­tion, which will focus on invest­ments in the areas of energy tran­si­tion and resource effi­ci­ency that contri­bute to the decar­bo­niza­tion of the economy. The Idun funds each invest between 20 and 100 million euros in sustainable compa­nies. All Idun II invest­ments are linked to strict sustaina­bi­lity crite­ria in order to make their posi­tive impact on the envi­ron­ment measura­ble. This includes, for exam­ple, the goal of avoi­ding at least 5,000 tons of CO2 for every million euros inves­ted. Verdane has offices in Berlin, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Munich, Stock­holm and Oslo. To ensure that Idun II only invests in compa­nies that have the poten­tial to be successful in a sustainable econo­mic envi­ron­ment, Verdane applies its own so-called “2040 test”. Further infor­ma­tion on the test can be found in Verdane’s current Sustaina­bi­lity Report 2023. Verdane successfully closed the Edda III mid-market growth buyout fund at the begin­ning of the year with a hard cap of 1.1 billion euros. This brought Verdane’s assets under manage­ment to over 8 billion euros. The third fund stra­tegy, Freya, which has been successful for more than 20 years, curr­ently invests through the Freya XI fund with a sophisti­ca­ted and broadly diver­si­fied mandate that invests in both company port­fo­lios and indi­vi­dual compa­nies. Verdane is a pioneer in sustainable invest­ments and has supported a total of 42 compa­nies in this area since 2003. The invest­ment company has deve­lo­ped a unique approach to measu­ring CO2 avoid­ance (more infor­ma­tion can be found in the corre­spon­ding white paper on Verdane’s home­page) and carries out a compre­hen­sive sustaina­bi­lity assess­ment for all compa­nies in the Idun port­fo­lio. Current invest­ments in the first Idun fund include NORNORM, a provi­der of inno­va­tive office furni­ture rental models that enable compa­nies to reduce their green­house gas emis­si­ons, and Scan­bio, a leading produ­cer of high-quality fish protein concen­tra­tes and oils that specia­li­zes in the recy­cling of resi­dual products and enables compa­nies to reduce the use of resource-inten­sive raw materials. 

Idun II has capi­tal commit­ments from inves­tors inclu­ding Nysnø Climate Invest­ments, the Norwe­gian state climate invest­ment fund, Banque de Luxem­bourg, the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund, MN, a provi­der of fidu­ciary services to Dutch pension funds, the Finnish invest­ment company Tesi and Carbon Equity, a provi­der that enables private and profes­sio­nal inves­tors to invest in a diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of the world’s best climate funds. Other inves­tors in Idun II include seve­ral global private and public pension funds, leading univer­sity funds, foun­da­ti­ons, insu­rance compa­nies and family offices. The fund was closed within just five months. Most of the commit­ments for Idun II come from non-profit orga­niza­ti­ons and inves­tors commit­ted to the common good. — Verdane’s inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor base is growing conti­nuously. In total, inves­tors from more than 13 count­ries are parti­ci­pa­ting in Idun II. US inves­tors alone account for 29 percent of the capi­tal commit­ments. Verdane’s thema­tic invest­ment approach focu­ses on leading Euro­pean compa­nies in the fields of digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion of the economy. Verdane has consis­t­ently inves­ted in these two growing mega­trends and has backed 16 Euro­pean compa­nies with more than 600 million euros in the last twelve months. Verdane offers growth compa­nies a compre­hen­sive set of tools and in-depth indus­try know­ledge. With a team of more than 150 invest­ment profes­sio­nals and a local presence in the core Euro­pean markets, Verdane has exclu­sive access to the best tech­no­logy compa­nies in the region. In addi­tion, Verdane’s plat­form has a bench­mar­king tool with more than 100 million data points and a unique network of over 600 expe­ri­en­ced execu­ti­ves with exten­sive indus­try exper­tise. Verdane’s port­fo­lio compa­nies are further supported by Elevate, an in-house team of 35 opera­tio­nal experts with exten­sive know­ledge in all areas requi­red to scale growth compa­nies. Frida Einar­son, Part­ner, Inves­tor Rela­ti­ons at Verdane (photo © Verdane), said: “The fact that we have succee­ded in mobi­li­zing private capi­tal at scale in 2024 to build a more sustainable economy is not only good news for our indus­try, but also for our planet. We look forward to welco­ming exis­ting and new inves­tors to Idun II and are confi­dent that we will achieve both high returns and measura­ble and demons­tra­ble posi­tive effects for the climate.” Bjarne Kveim Lie, Foun­der and Mana­ging Part­ner of Verdane, said: “With Idun II, we want to show that it is possi­ble to deli­ver best-in-class returns for inves­tors while making an important contri­bu­tion to the decar­bo­niza­tion of our economy. We are convin­ced that decar­bo­niza­tion is a gene­ra­tio­nal mega­trend and we want to be the growth part­ner of choice for the compa­nies best posi­tio­ned to bene­fit from this trend and help them realize their full poten­tial.” “Our team of specia­lists in the field of decar­bo­niza­tion now compri­ses 13 experts, making it one of the largest in Europe. 

Supported by our 35-strong Elevate team, they bene­fit from the networks and expe­ri­ence of the entire company, which has helped sustainable Euro­pean growth compa­nies to scale over the past two deca­des. This enables us to further deepen our exper­tise in the struc­tu­ral growth trend of decar­bo­niza­tion and to support our port­fo­lio compa­nies in their growth with a local presence in the key markets of Nort­hern Europe. We are very plea­sed with the great confi­dence of our inves­tors and will do our utmost to meet their high expec­ta­ti­ons.” Verdane Idun II was advi­sed by Rede Part­ners, an inde­pen­dent fund­rai­sing advi­sor to the private equity indus­try, and legally by Andulf Advo­kat AB.

About Verdane

Verdane is an invest­ment company specia­li­zing in growth capi­tal that supports compa­nies with sustainable and tech­no­logy-based busi­ness models. Verdane invests as a mino­rity or majo­rity inves­tor in indi­vi­dual compa­nies or company port­fo­lios and focu­ses on two core themes: Digi­ta­liza­tion and decar­bo­niza­tion. Verdane’s funds have capi­tal commit­ments of more than 8 billion euros. Since 2003, the company has inves­ted in over 400 fast-growing compa­nies. Verdane has more than 150 employees, with offices in Berlin, Munich, Copen­ha­gen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and Stock­holm, and is commit­ted to being the best growth capi­tal part­ner in Europe. Verdane has a B‑Corporation certi­fi­ca­tion, which is conside­red the world’s most deman­ding in the area of sustaina­bi­lity. In addi­tion, the invest­ment company only supports compa­nies that pass the 2040 test. This exami­nes whether the company can be successful in a more sustainable econo­mic envi­ron­ment in the future. Verdane is also a share­hol­der in the Verdane Foun­da­tion, which focu­ses on two areas: Climate change and a fairer and inclu­sive society.